Act 1, Scene 1

The first scene of The Producers takes place outside of the Schubert Theater on Broadway on a June evening in 1959, where Max Bialystock's latest show, Funny Boy!, has just opened. A musical version of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the show is closing that night, reviled by critics who could not even stay to the end. Bialystock sings a song about how famous and successful he once was.

Act 1, Scene 2

Leo Bloom, a mild accountant, shows up at Bialystock's office to do his bookkeeping. One of Bialystock's backers, an amorous old lady, comes in, and Bloom is forced to hide. After she leaves, Bloom finds a discrepancy in the account but decides that it does not matter since the show closed early, and investors will not expect any money back. Bloom idly mentions that a producer could make more with a failure than with a hit, because he could...